This invention relates to a method of and apparatus for treating printed paper so as to render subject matter printed thereon unintelligible.
The computer industry uses a vast amount of printout paper in the form of elongate fan-folded paper webs. To conserve paper, after a web has been printed on one surface, it may be reused by printing on the opposite surface. Prior to reuse, an identifying marking may be applied to the first-printed surface, but this does not obliterate the information already printed. Thus, when information such as proprietary data printed on one side of a paper sheet is not intended to remain accessible, the paper cannot be reused.
This invention provides a method and apparatus, particularly suitable for application to computer print-out paper, for efficiently and economically rendering printed subject matter unintelligible. Thus, printed information on one surface of a paper sheet may be obliterated, so that the sheet may be reused by printing on the opposite surface without giving access to the information on the first surface. The attendant savings in paper can be significant.